A new Senate bill has been placed on the Connecticut Children’s Committee agenda scheduled for hearing on February 14. National Home Legal Defense (NHELD) offers more information about this bill in the organization’s new Bulletin - More CT Proposed Legislation Regarding Children’s Mental Health Assessment.

The new bill, SB 169, does not contain language specifiying homeschoolers in this mental health assessment proposal. SB 374 did include homeschoolers in the proposed mental health assessments at 12, 14 and 17 years of age. From the NHELD Bulletin and Deborah Stevenson pertaining to the new SB 169:

This bill is before the Children’s Committee. It apparently was placed on the agenda of a committee meeting, and it has been scheduled for a public hearing on February 14, 2013. While at first glance, it sounds as though Senate Bill 169 purports to do the same thing as Senate Bill 374, it is extremely important not to jump to conclusions. Legally speaking, one needs to review the exact language in any bill to determine its true effect.
For example, Bill 169 does not include the word “homeschool” at all. Therefore, as it stands right now, based on the plain language of the bill, this bill has no direct effect on parents who homeschool their children. In fact, Bill 169 says that the statutes are to be amended to require the assessments. It does not even specify when those statutes are to be amended, or in what manner. To be sure, there are many arguments that can be made that the bill, as it is written now, should not be adopted. But it would not be accurate to say that, at this time, this bill directly affects the rights of homeschooling parents.

There are many stages in the life of any bill. The chairmen of each committee may change the language in the bill before it gets voted on, before or after a public hearing takes place on the bill. The public hearing on Bill 169 is scheduled to take place on February 14. If anyone wants to comment on the bill, they are certainly free to do so. But, NHELD suggests that those who do comment on it be very careful not to allege that this bill is a direct threat against homeschooling. If we approach the legislature as homeschoolers, it is most important that we speak with accuracy and intelligence. Remember that the key is to persuade. Appearing to react to something that is not actually contained in a bill will not achieve your goal. It may have the opposite effect and may even make legislators disregard your opinion.

In the last month, the news media led many stories about homeschooling by pointing out Newtown and other school murders. The buzz within the homeschooling community is the expanded interest and questions from concerned school parents. The start of a school session after the new year often seems a cleaner break from the school starting this new family adventure. We can wonder how many families actually took the leap into homeschooling. Some parts of the country seem to have the Newtown reactive homeschooling interest, while other regions appear to have a more generalized basis for homeschooling considerations.

KASSON, Minn. (KTTC)– With incidents like Columbine and the recent Sandy Hook massacre it’s no surprise that many parents have taken on the role of teacher.

In the past four years alone there has been a 54 percent spike in the number of children who have registered to be home-schooled.

It’s at an all time high and the types of families that are now choosing to home school span the demographic spectrum of backgrounds, income levels and education.

The Connecticutarticle below articulated the thoughts I know I had, as did many other homeschoolers, while our country tries to absorb and form some sort of solution to these horrific school murders and associated problems.

“Bullying and emotional abuse and the threat of gun violence have always been a piece of the puzzle,” said Diane Flynn Keith, founder of Homefires.com, a site devoted to home schooling.Keith said that on the day of the Newtown shootings, home schooling message boards she visited were filled with parents expressing sorrow for the families of victims, but also thankful they didn’t have to send their own children off to a school building.In the weeks since, she’s seen a sharp spike in the number of people coming to her home schooling seminars because of Newtown.

Connecticut based NHELD‘s Executive Director, Deborah Stevenson, also commented in the article with a different perspective:

Stevenson said roughly 2 to 3 percent of Connecticut students are home schooled.
“It’s clearly something that works for many people,” she said. “There are tons of resources for parents to get curriculum materials and individualized textbooks.”
She and several other representatives from Connecticut home schooling groups stressed that they have not seen an influx of new parents interested in home schooling since the mass shooting in Newtown. What’s more, they said personal safety has not been a dominant issue for parents.

Another Connecticut parent, Angelique Henderson, made this point, among many other thoughtful insights as a former high school teacher and homeschooling mom:

“Safety wasn’t really the major issue,” she said. “It was more determined by the atmosphere of schools. It had to do with the way systems just push kids through.”

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